Chapter 32: The Magic Shopping Arcade

Chapter 32: The Magic Shopping Arcade

The second my foot hit the rock, the water in the lake fell away, revealing a stairwell that led down to a door on the seabed. I chuckled as I repeated the actions of the previous two men and stepped carefully into the lake.

That is one well-placed bush. Nobody can see me from Hooverville.

I stepped slowly, worried I might slip. To my surprise, the steps were completely dry. It was a strange feeling walking between two walls of water yet there wasn’t even any humidity in the air. There was an invisible wall of magic that separated me from the water.

Stasis Displacement Field

Grade: A

Condition: 73

Created by: Penderblast

The closer I looked, the more I noticed a slight shimmer between myself and the water, marked by the gentle motion of the water as it brushed against the magic field. There was a flash of light as a fish collided with the field and was forcibly repulsed.

“What are you doing?” a woman whispered harshly from the door at the bottom of the stairs. “You’re wasting energy. Besides, you don’t want to be seen, do you?”

“Sorry,” I mumbled, quickly making my way down the stairs.

She slammed the door shut as soon as I was through and I heard a whooshing of water on the other side as it flooded back into the area where the stairs were.

“Is this your first time here?” the woman asked with a crooked smile on her face.

“Yeah,” I admitted while sheepishly rubbing the back of my head.

“You must be new to magic too if you stopped to gawk at a simple displacement field,” she added, snorting as she tried to suppress a laugh.

“That was simple?” I asked, once again shocked by how much magic could accomplish.

The woman rolled her eyes. “Beginner mages can make distortion fields. Maybe not as elaborate as this one. Holding back that much water takes a lot of precision but the concept is the same. I’m just surprised you’ve never seen one is all.”

I ignored the comment and turned to take in the magnitude of the magic market. If I thought the underground workshop of the Tinkerer’s Guild was unnaturally large, the place I now found myself in dwarfed it.

The marketplace was set up like an outdoor market, with rows of tables in front of elaborate displays. Around the outside wall were more permanent structures built directly into the bedrock.

“Hey!” The woman barked as I proceeded to walk to the nearest row of tables. “Don’t you want to get stamped?”

“Stamped?” I asked, looking over my shoulder.

She held up a rubber stamp. “You can’t buy anything if you aren’t stamped.”

“Why not?” I asked, wondering what a stamp had to do with buying things.

“You’re only allowed to shop here if you’re registered with the guild,” she replied. “You are registered with the guild, right?”

I nodded, returning to hand her my card. The woman smiled. “You are new. I was just joking when I said that. Welcome to the Magic Shopping Arcade. Here is a site map. Some of the stores come and go but it’s mostly accurate.”

She stamped me and handed me a folded-up map before shooing me on my way as more customers entered through the lake door.

Armed with a map and a whole gold to spend on whatever I wanted, I made my way to the first table I saw.

Maribelle’s Exquisite Wands

“In the market for a wand, Kid?” A middle-aged woman I assumed to be Maribelle asked while rushing over to where I was standing. I got the impression she thought I might try to steal something.

I didn’t want to sound ignorant by asking what wands were used for so I browsed in silence until Maribelle cleared her throat expectantly.

“Uh, I was just looking around,” I admitted. “I just got here and yours was the first booth I saw.”

“Do you want to buy something?” She asked again.

I looked at a few of the wands. The cheapest one I saw cost ten gold.

Dingus D’Arnold’s Fourth Wand

Grade: D

Condition: 97

Owned by: Unknown

The woman raised an eyebrow when she saw my attention drawn to the cheapest. “That one’s a steal at only ten gold. It belonged to one of the wizards from the king’s court in England. The only reason it’s so cheap is because we don’t have the specific name of the wizard it belonged to. I can tell you that it’s B ranked though.”

It was my turn to be suspicious. Were scams common in the shopping arcade? The last thing I wanted to do was make a scene by calling her out.

“I can’t afford anything here,” I said, wandering away from the table.

The woman followed me until I was well on my way to the next booth. Most people weren’t as critical of me as that first table, though they all kept an eye on me. I wandered up and down the rows of shops, looking at everything like a kid in a magic candy store. In fact, I made sure to try my first piece of magic candy while I was there.

Everlasting Lossenger

Grade: A

Condition: 100

Owner: None

The owner of the shop was an odd man named Wonky Willard. He greeted me theatrically when I arrived at his booth. “Welcome, Son. It’s my goal in life to sell candy to every kid on the planet.”

He wasn’t lying either. His was one of the few booths where I could afford virtually everything for just a few coppers a piece. I tried my best to forget that every piece of candy I bought was at least a dollar in normal money but once I got past that I was able to stock up on delicious confections for every single one of the orphans. I even slipped a cherry eclair into my shadow for Grace. I was rewarded with a whispered thank you that eased my fear that she be seen accepting candy from an untrustworthy shadow.

Other booths I visited had medieval weapons and armor. Before I met Leslie, I would have wondered why anybody needed such ancient weapons but after fighting monstrous rats with glowing red eyes, I knew no knife could ever be big enough. That wasn’t even taking into account dragons and things I now knew were out there.

I’d made it to the back of the hall when I found an interesting row filled with crafting stalls. The first booth I visited had vials and jars filled with liquids and powders of every color. Several pots bubbled quietly in the back where a hunched-over old woman slowly stewed a murky brown concoction.

She saw me and smiled, revealing multiple missing teeth. “Greetings, young man. What brings you over to this end of the shopping arcade?”

I leaned over the counter, far more interested in what she was doing than answering her question. “What are you making?”

“This?” She asked, motioning to the pot before taking a ladle out and tasting it. “This is an endurance potion. Would you like a free sample?”

I raised an eyebrow, wondering if she was lying.

Greater Endurance Potion

Grade: A

Condition: 100

Owner: Drips

“Your name is Drips?” I asked, unable to help myself.

She laughed. “Who told you that?”

We both looked up at the sign for the booth.

Drip’s Drops

She chuckled. “Clever boy. You can call me Dolores. Everyone does. So, how about that sample?”

I nodded enthusiastically, and she filled the label with another helping of potion, only to laugh when I hesitated to take it from her. “Are you afraid of an old lady’s germs?”

I shook my head. “I’m not afraid of nothing!”

She laughed. “I suppose that means you’re afraid of everything. Not a bad trait to have. Here you go then, drink up.”

I wrapped my head around what she said while drinking the potion in a single gulp. It tasted like licorice, and the effect was immediate. Any fatigue I felt washed away in an instant.

Dolores nodded her approval. “Hit’s the spot, doesn’t it? It’s the only way I get out of bed in the morning.”

I nodded in agreement while looking through the rest of the potions.

Health Potion

Grade: C

Condition: 100

Owner: Drips

I wondered what the difference was between the low-grade and higher-grade potions.

Info: Health potion heals a maximum of 100 Hitpoints.

Then I scanned a few more potions till I came to a greater healing potion.

Greater Health Potion

Grade: A

Condition: 100

Owner: Drips

Info: Heals a maximum of 500 Hitpoints

Dolores watched me closely as I inspected the different potions. “You get a strange look in your eyes when you look at things. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were blessed with an appraisal skill.”

I don’t know why but I liked the old lady. Lowering my voice, I leaned closer to her and whispered. “It’s actually called Analyze.”

She grinned again. “You are very lucky. There are many uses for a skill like that. Here especially. You can use it to weed out liars. I can’t tell you how many vendors set up shop selling trinkets they claim to be lost artifacts of a bygone era. While you can find some deals if you look hard enough, most turn out to be scams.”

“Your descriptions are accurate,” I replied, nodding to the potions.

She cackled. “Of course they are. I’m an honest woman. Yes, I am.”

We laughed and I picked out a slew of potions I thought might come in handy. I picked up a dozen of the normal Health Potions and Endurance Potions as well as a couple of Mana Potions. While I hadn’t needed any yet, I figured it was bound to in the future.

Dolores looked through my haul and added a handful of green ones as well. “These are Cure-Disease Potions, and they work well for most diseases you’ll encounter out there. If you go dungeoneering, you’re going to want a healer or something stronger. Magic diseases are typically resistant to normal potions.”

“There are magic diseases?” I asked, stunned that such a thing existed. “Can non-magic people get them?”

She sighed, nodding. “Yes. Peasants often don’t understand what’s happening when they contract a magic malady. Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do for them as their constitution isn’t strong enough to fight it off even with help.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She sat in a squat chair behind the counter. “What level are you?”

“I’m level four,” I replied.

“Well, peasants very rarely ever make it past level one,” she explained. “So you’re already four times more resistant to disease than they will ever be, and you’re only going to get stronger. Something that might be uncomfortable for you will most likely kill them outright.”

“That’s terrible,” I whispered.

“That’s reality,” she said glumly. “While it’s unfortunate, you can count yourself lucky that you are one of the lucky few to awaken.”

Dolores stopped me when I reached into my bag for money. “Keep your money. If you don’t mind, I’d rather you do me a favor.”

“What kind of favor?” I asked, already regretting that I told her about my skill.

She smiled, getting up to come around the booth. “Don’t worry, it won’t be difficult. I just want you to look at something and tell me what you see.”